Coarse Fishing in the South East (UK)

I recently stumbled on using Vitalin as a groundbait but instead of using a traditional feeder I have developed something different that works very well on one fishery in particular - Hartleylands in Kent. All will be revealed in a few weeks once I have fished the BCUK sponsored Hartleylands two day festival on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th July 2006, I don't want to give the game away until I have too!......

As a warm up to the main event (above) I fished the L.B.C.S. 2006 event at Hartleylands (60 pegs) on  20th June and won the individual title and helped my club, the Metro Musketeers, to a first overall on my vitalin groundbait method. Stop Press!! Just fished the 2007 L.B.C.S. (5th June) match at Hartleylands and guess what? I won and RETAINED my Individual Title with a match winning weight of 99lb 10oz of Vitalin Feeder fish (98 carp in total) from peg 13 on Nicks Lake. The team also RETAINED their title as well 

I have now fished the BCUK Hartleylands 2 Day Festival and came a creditable 6th overall in the Festival and 3rd overall on day 2. Unfortunately the 'Floating Feeder' was banned under the Festival Rules so I had to adapt my approach accordingly. I also fished the Nick Puncher Memorial match at Hartleylands (69 pegs) and won my lake after fishing the floating feeder for just over an hour! before having to change back to a more traditional feeder because of the wind. Again, I came 6th overall in the match, so I must be doing something rite eh!.

Stop Press!! (again) just won the MaggotDrowners Southern Champs at Hartleylands (September 2007) with..... yes, you've guessed..... the Vitalin Feeder. 69 fish for 83lb on peg 4 Pear Tree Lake. You have to have a screw loose not to try this method at least once!! give it a go before it's too late in the season, the weather is turning cold and this method will loose it's edge once the cold weather arrives.

 

Well, here it is. Don't confuse this particular method of feeder fishing with the 'Rocket Feeder'. It's similar but not the same!. The 'Vitalin Feeder' or as it's more commonly known the 'Floating Feeder' is by no means new and is just another regurgitated method of fishing with a twist. I have recently had plenty of time to try other methods of fishing. I have in the past been accused of being a one method angler and that method was the pole. I had my reasons for this, mainly lack of time to practice other methods such as feeder, waggler, bomb etc. I could fish them as good as most anglers but I couldn't compete with the 'frame' anglers that used a multitude of methods and baits on a regular basis. I now had plenty of time on my hands to dabble with lots of baits and methods. I remembered seeing an angler fishing Hartleylands last season and he was using Vitalin as a groundbait mix and was having the time of his life, a fish a chuck, they were going bonkers every time his feeder landed in his swim. I talked at length with him learning how he prepared his Vitalin, what rigs he used including hookbaits and hook sizes. Now was the time to delve into the world of Vitalin feeder fishing!. Now I'm not one to stick to tried and tested methods or baits. I much prefer taking a particular method or way of presenting a bait and adapt it to MY style of fishing. With this in mind I set about perfecting my own way of fishing this particular method. Firstly, I got my thinking cap on - Question: exactly what do I want to achieve with this method? Answer: to get the fish up-in-the-water and competing for food. It was obvious that the traditional sinking feeder would have to take a back seat and it is at this point that I decided on using a floating feeder. Don't get me wrong, a normal feeder does the job just fine but a floating feeder puts more fish on the bank at the end of the day. Several Drennan feeders later and I had my supply of floating feeders of various sizes at the ready. All I did was simply remove the weight from the feeder and replace it with some rig foam making sure that the feeder still floats even when full of Vitalin, I didn't want it to sink. I found that a generous helping of Super Glue worked a treat and in a matter of seconds the foam was firmly in place. Now I had my feeders sorted I then moved onto the Vitalin itself. Vitalin consists mainly of cooked wheat, sweetcorn, barley and soya. In it's raw state (picture below) the pieces are quite large and un-manageable. What was needed was a quick session in a food blender to break it down a little and make it more manageable (picture below). I found that 15-20 seconds on full power produced the perfect mix for me and at £9.99 for a 15kg sack of Vitalin it was a cheap days fishing!. Well.....several days fishing actually.

In just a matter of seconds you can have plenty of groundbait for a days fishing.....and more....

 

With a box full of feeders and plenty of groundbait I decided on a day out at Hartleylands Fishery, Kent. I chose this venue because I knew the fish would respond to this approach. Before I go any further I must point out that this method is not a 'magic' method and you still have to work at your fishing to put fish on the bank. Indeed, on some venues I suspect this particular method will be next to useless! but find a venue where it does work and is allowed and is within the rules then you are going to have a cracking days fishing. I decided on a practice using Nick's Lake, on a peg opposite an island which was about 20m away. The idea was to fish the feeder up against the island in 2 or 3 feet of water and get the fish competing for the free offerings coming out of the feeder. Hookbaits on the day were a selection of pellets, corn and maggots. No floating baits, I'm not a great fan of floating baits and besides, I fish few matches where they are allowed. After a few hours bagging carp from 1lb-3lb I eventually had the method sussed. I found that for the first 15 minutes I needed to use a large feeder to get plenty of  Vitalin out into the swim. After which a change to a smaller feeder did the job and reduced the amount of groundbait I was using but at the same time keeping the fish interested. I found that several handfuls of BCUK B1 3mm feed pellet mixed in with the Vitalin also improved things as well as bulking out my groundbait mix. Incidentally, you need very little water to mix Vitalin as a groundbait. It's a case of trial and error - too much and it ends up like concrete - too little and it flies out of the feeder on cast. Remember, the feeder weighs nothing and you are reliant on the weight of the groundbait to cast the feeder any distance at all. A windy day can put an end to using this method but you should still get good results by reverting back to traditional sinking feeders with exactly the same Vitalin groundbait mix, just use the lightest feeder you can get away with. Having the Vitalin mix as dry as possible was also best. I found that if the Vitalin exploded out of the feeder on impact that the fish went crazy even attacking the feeder to get at the goodies. Hooklengths and baits varied on the day. A hooklength as near to the floating feeder as possible (12 inches) worked better than a longer hooklength (18/24 inches). But....on occasions a longer hooklength outscored the shorter one! you have to ring the changes on the day and adjust accordingly. Having a Korum quick change bead had me changing hooklength in seconds with no problems. After a number of hours messing about with hook patterns and sizes I stumbled on using hair-rigged pellet and corn as a good bait. On a number of occasions immediately the feeder hit the water the rod was wrenched from my hands as a fish took the bait. As you can see from the rig (below) there is nothing complicated about the set-up. Surprisingly I had very few tangles, probably due to the fact that I was coming back with a fish every put in. I also found that if I hadn't had a bite within 15 or 20 seconds then re-filling the feeder and re-casting often brought an immediate response. Keep the bait going in and the fish will eventually responde. This is a very busy method and you must not sit on your hands waiting for bites. I also tried using a Drennan Feeder without any weight or rig foam. Knowing that on some matches floating feeder is banned I needed an alternative. Once my link swivel and hook length were attached to the feeder it sank and therefore put me within the rules. But what it did was sink slow thus allowing my hookbait to stay in the upper layer of water for that few seconds more which is all I needed to get those extra fish in the net. Incidentally, one advantage of using hair-rig pellets is that you can use one bait to catch several fish without wasting time re-baiting, again, this is a time saver and will put more fish in your net at the end of the day. Hitting bites wasn't a problem, more often than not they would hook themselves when using the hair-rig. One important thing I learned was NOT to strike at bites. If the feeder bobbed or wobbled or even went under I just turned my attentions to the rod tip and waited for it to pull round. On a number of occasions the tip would go round then spring back, this was due mainly to fish actually attacking the feeder and mouthing it. All I would do is wait for the tip to go round to a certain point then merely lift into the fish - no need to strike at all. Even if there is a bow in your line don't worry, you will often see the line picking up of the surface of the water as a fish takes the bait and your rod tip will soon follow!. I always clip up using this method so each cast is deadly accurate with the fish waiting in exactly the same spot each time to intercept the feeder and bait. Under no circumstances tighten your line after casting, leave it exactly where it fell, if you cast to the clip then your line should be reasonably tight anyway. I always have my feeder rigs free running. I have used this method in open water (Nick Puncher Memorial Match) from a dire peg. Basically I was the only peg that couldn't reach the island so I fished the method in open water and after ten minutes I had them queuing up for it. I won my lake by a mile even after reverting to a slow sinking feeder in an effort to beat the wind. Give it a go - go on - you know you want too 

I went for a days fishing at Hartleylands Fishery to show my team mate Jim McDowell exactly how to fish the Floating Vitalin Feeder and as expected we had tremendous results, even he can't believe why he's never stumbled onto this method before and he's even lost for words when I explain that some anglers I have spoken to have rejected this method as noddy along with the Floating Pole, Method Feeder, and other modern methods and that they refuse to fish it!. For me - it's just another weapon in my anglers armoury.

Jim casts his floating feeder towards the island (picture below) and it lands with a splash as the groundbait explodes out of the feeder in a fish attracting cloud.

The fish home in on the noise of the feeder knowing it's 'dinner time' (picture below). The fish go crazy for the Vitalin groundbait and the swim is a hive of activity with fish crawling over each other to get at the groundbait. Jim doesn't even have time to put his rod in the rest because....

......Just a few seconds later with the hookbait less than a foot from the feeder and amongst all the feeding fish, the line tightens and the rod tip slowly pulls round as a fish takes the bait.......fish on! (picture below) - all that is required now is to repeat the process another 100 times for a nice net of fish. Simple innit?.

Remember this particular method is not guaranteed to work on every fishery but find one where it does and you can expect a response similar to this (picure below).

July 2006